


Berlin

by AntarcticBird



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 13:50:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4748723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AntarcticBird/pseuds/AntarcticBird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt and Blaine visit Berlin. (Part of the <a href="http://klaineroadtrip2015.tumblr.com/">klaineroadtrip2015</a>.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Berlin

“Did you know,” Blaine says, holding Kurt's hand as they're waiting to board the little river boat, “that Berlin has more than nine hundred bridges? That's even more than Venice has.”

Kurt laughs, leans over to kiss Blaine's cheek. “Yes,” he says. “I do know. Because you've told me ten times since we got here.”

“Well, it's true,” Blaine insists, pouting a little.

“I know it's true,” Kurt assures him with a smile, squeezing his hand a little. “I've read it too. There's even another river boat tour specifically for bridge history or whatever.”

“Oh.” Blaine nods. “Yes, I know, did you want to do that one instead? Because we could -”

“No, this one looks nice,” Kurt interrupts. “And there's more to see here than just bridges, after all.”

“Maybe we can do the bridge tour tomorrow,” Blaine suggests, and Kurt groans through his smile.

“I thought tomorrow was for museums and the East Side Gallery!”

“You're right, you're right.” Blaine laughs, tugging at Kurt's hand as the line in front of them starts moving. “Let's stick to the plan.” It's probably best if they don't add more to their schedule – they already have quite the long list of things to do in Berlin.

“Down here or upper deck?” Kurt asks once they're on board the small river boat, fingers still linked with Blaine's as he raises a questioning eyebrow at him.

Downstairs has cushioned seats and looks kind of cozy, while the upper deck has plastic folding chairs and almost no legroom. Still, it's a choice between looking out a window near water level or being exposed to the elements with a better view. “Upper deck?” Blaine suggests. “Looks more fun.”

“Definitely.” Kurt grins. “I was hoping you'd say that.”

Blaine grins back at him and makes Kurt climb the stairs to the upper deck in front of him because those steps are narrow and steep and Kurt is wearing the really tight pants and hey, today is all about enjoying the view, right?

They get two seats in the front row, and when the wind picks up as soon as the boat starts moving, Kurt turns his body sideways toward Blaine's, wraps him up in a tight hug, and Blaine cuddles back against him as they start making their way through the city.

It's kind of cool, seeing Berlin from the water – so many beautiful, old buildings and a _lot_ of bridges, seriously, one of them so low a voice over the loudspeaker warns them to duck their heads as they approach. 

They go past Museum Island, and some really huge park with really huge trees, and the boat also goes right through the government district. From their vantage point on the river they're close enough to the chancellor's offices and some other office buildings they can actually see all the way inside.

“This has to be really pretty when it's dark,” Kurt points out, and Blaine nods.

“We should come back here tonight,” he muses.

“Hmm.” Kurt kisses his cheek. “Brandenburg Gate by night? Sounds wonderful.”

And they do go back later that night and take pictures that Blaine thinks are pretty enough to be printed as postcards – especially one he takes of Kurt with his head tilted up to study the quadriga, eyes wide in the soft light of the evening.

“Let's head back to the hotel?” Blaine asks, and Kurt kisses him right there under the gate for a good minute before linking their arms and leading him back to the subway.

**

Berlin is a lot of time spent on public transport – Blaine is grateful that Kurt has spent some time figuring out the intricacies of this city's transportation system. There are subway trains (U-Bahn), overground trains (S-Bahn), and also buses and trams, and it probably all makes sense to the people living here but Blaine is just grateful every time they actually arrive where they want to go. He does enjoy the buskers, though – there are a lot of them on all the U-Bahn and S-Bahn trains, getting on at one stop, playing one song and getting off again at the next. A lot of them are really good too.

To start off their second day in Berlin they spend all morning walking all across the Tempelhof airport park (Tempelhofer Feld) which apparently used to be an airport and is now just a giant, flat park filled with people on roller skates, people walking their dogs, kids playing, people playing Frisbee and badminton and setting up barbecues. It looks different than the other parks they've seen around so far – less trees and more wide open space. It looks – well, it looks a lot like an airport, just without any planes.

They packed their own lunch today so eventually they find a spot for themselves and have a nice picnic, which Blaine ends with his head in Kurt's lap, squinting against the sun, humming contentedly.

“This city has a lot of parks,” he says, stretching out his legs and slipping his fingers under the hem of Kurt's shirt. “Bridges and trains and parks.”

“Let's see if we can find another one for lunch tomorrow,” Kurt suggests, one hand patting Blaine's full stomach. “I kind of like this.”

Blaine nods in agreement and closes his eyes for just five minutes. It's a sunny day, and he doesn't have the chance to nap right next to an old landing field every day, after all.

“Are you falling asleep?” Kurt asks amused, poking him in the chest.

“If I do, don't leave me here,” Blaine pleads, mustering up the energy to sit up, wrestling Kurt down onto their blanket so he can wrap his arms and leg around him securely. “I'd never find my way back to the hotel on my own.”

“Blaine, come on,” Kurt complains, laughing as he struggles to wriggle his way out of Blaine's hold, without much success. “We should get going.”

“No. Nap time!”

“You take a nap, I'll go ahead and go sightseeing?”

“I married you so I'd always have a pillow for emergency naps,” Blaine informs him, rolling half on top of him to rest his cheek against Kurt's warm chest. “My emergency husband-pillow.”

“You're impossible,” Kurt informs him, but hugs him back anyway and, with a deep sigh, relaxes into the embrace as Blaine hides his contented smile in Kurt's shirt.

**

On their way to the East Side Gallery they pick up some coffee and walk hand in hand – of course the gallery is near the river Spree, as pretty much everything in this city seems to be.

The first thing Blaine notices once they get there is how small it is – it's a funny sort of realization and he pauses, standing and watching. The art is beautiful, but mostly it's – surprisingly small slabs of concrete.

“Wow,” Kurt says, stopping with his hand squeezing Blaine's, and when Blaine looks at him, he's biting his lip, looking as lost in thought as Blaine feels.

“I know,” Blaine says.

“Just -” Kurt shrugs. “It's … pieces of wall. With beautiful art on it, of course, but...” He shrugs again. “You know?”

“Yeah,” Blaine confirms feels a chill run down his spine. So much history condensed into something that looks so tiny once you're standing in front of it. It's incredible that so little can mean so much.

“Well, I mean, the actual border between East and West was more than this, wasn't it?” Kurt points out.

Blaine nods. He's read up on this too before going to bed last night. “Must have been pretty nasty. Pretty heavily guarded. It sounded quite – brutal, actually.”

“I like that they kept these pieces of it and made it into art,”Kurt says slowly. “I couldn't even really say why. It's just – making something so sad into something so beautiful. Right?”

“Yes. Definitely,” Blaine agrees, bumps their shoulders together softly. “I know what you mean.”

They stand and sip their coffee before Kurt, clutching Blaine's hand tightly in his own, slowly leads him down the length of the painted Wall pieces until they get to the end of it. Blaine realizes they forgot to take photos. But he supposes they'll have to walk back the same way later after lunch, so they can do it then.

The Museum of Natural History takes up their entire afternoon and they both don't feel all that much like walking anymore afterwards, so for once they decide to have dinner at the hotel before going to bed early.

**

The concierge at their hotel is the one to tell them about the Mauerpark flea market and they change their rather tentative plans for the last day to go there instead of the Botanical Garden which is all the way in the south. Mauerpark with its attached flea market is much closer to their hotel. And Blaine loves it.

It's insane, booths and stalls and folding tables filled with art and handcrafted clothes, furniture, accessories, in between boxes filled with junk that's too battered and dirty to be good even for a yard sale. 

The actual park is right next to the makeshift market place, but Kurt and Blaine decide to visit the market first – which is kind of inevitable once you've ventured too close to it and get sort of sucked into the stream of people disappearing between the booths.

Moving at your own pace or turning around and changing direction is pretty much impossible unless you weave your way out of the people-stream to stop by a booth, but Blaine doesn't mind; he has always really loved yard sales and flea markets and a lot of the handcrafted items look like they're _made_ for either Kurt or himself.

It takes them about an hour to be spit out at the other end of the market again and by this time Kurt is carrying three new scarves, two brooches, a hat and a new phone case. Blaine has bought himself two hats, a vest, a pair of shoes and a ridiculously cheap old camera that he bought because it was funny.

By now, they're both getting hungry, so they stop and buy some kebab on their way over to the park where they find some wide stone steps in a half-circle at the far end to sit down and eat and rest their feet for a bit.

“I guess we should go back to the hotel for a bit,” Kurt says, amused, licking a bit of sauce off his hand before pointing at his bags. “I don't really want to carry all of this stuff around with me all day.”

Blaine nods. “Worth it, though. I just hope there's still enough room in our luggage.”

“It'll fit,” Kurt promises him. “I'll make it fit.”

Blaine has seen Kurt pack a suitcase enough times to believe him when he sounds so sure of it.

**

They take their time that night since all they have planned for their last night in Berlin are drinks on Simon-Dach-Strasse; another recommendation from a hotel employee. Apparently it's an entire street filled with all the best bars and cafés in the city, according to the waiter Blaine befriended that morning.

Once again, Blaine relies on Kurt to find them the best way there, amused when Kurt insists that the overground train they are in is actually a subway.

“It's above ground, Kurt,” Blaine points out patiently.

Kurt frowns, studying something on his phone. “It's the U-1. U is for underground. And it says here that is does go underground for a lot of the way. It's just above ground for a few stops along the river.”

“It's very far above ground,” Blaine says, looking out of the window. “You can see everything from here. There's Alexanderplatz in the distance, look! See the tower?”

Kurt puts his phone away, turns to look out of the window with Blaine. “Pretty, isn't it?” he says, sounding pleased.

“Beautiful,” Blaine agrees, just as they're crossing the river once again.

“Oh.” Kurt gasps. “It's close to sunset, isn't it?”

Blaine nods. “Must be.”

“Next stop is ours anyway,” Kurt announces, bouncing a little in his seat. “Wonderful. I have an idea!”

Blaine trusts Kurt as he leads them off the train at the next stop (Warschauer Strasse) and out of the station, turning back in the direction they just came from.

It's just a few minutes back to the bridge they just crossed. They find a nice spot and lean against the railing side by side, looking out across the river Spree as the sun sets in the distance, painting the city spread out in front of them in beautiful red and yellow.

“Oberbaum bridge,” Kurt says happily. “I read about this last night! Originally I wanted to find Modersohn bridge because it's supposed to be even prettier, but this is good too, I guess.”

“It is! You have the best ideas,” Blaine says, and Kurt laughs, cuddles closer to Blaine.

“It's supposed to be incredibly romantic. Which is why I was hoping to find it before we had to leave.”

“Definitely romantic,” Blaine agrees. “Almost makes me want to spontaneously sing you a love song.”

Kurt snorts, nudges his nose against Blaine's. “You know what?”

“What?” Blaine asks.

Kurt sighs and leans in to press a soft kiss to Blaine's lips. “I love you a ridiculous amount. I'm serious. I'm so completely and totally in love with you it's not even funny.”

“Well, that's good then,” Blaine says, heart beating hard in his chest with how overwhelmingly happy he is, standing on this gorgeous old bridge in the soft light of the sunset on the river, holding this man who means the world to him. “Because I feel the same way about you.”

“I'm glad,” Kurt says.

“I love you, Kurt,” Blaine promises, and kisses him again, and yes, this is the perfect end to their stay here. He can't wait to find out what the rest of their trip has in store for them.


End file.
